Go By Bike offers bike valet service to South Waterfront area

View full sizeD.K. RowKiel Johnson, owner of Go By Bike, a new bike valet service and repair shop in the South Waterfront area.

At Go By Bike, human-powered two-wheelers get special valet service five days a week. The combination valet-service-meets-bike-repair-shop opened in March in the South Waterfront neighborhood right under the Portland aerial tram. Owned by Kiel Johnson, Go By Bike gives the area's bike commuters a safe place to secure their bikes without a lock, as well as convenient bike repair services if they need them.

Commuters can drop off bikes before work or an appointment as early as 6 a.m. and can pick them up anytime before the service closes at 6:45 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Johnson says the valet service can watch over as many as 150 bikes at a time. Regulars even get an assigned space. Bike seats are also covered with plastic for protection from rain.

The valet service is free; repairs are not. Customers are mostly employees and students of Oregon Health & Science University as well as residents of the South Waterfront neighborhood.

OHSU, which encourages students and employees to commute by bike in the parking-tight area, started the valet service last year by contracting it out to another company.

This year, it teamed with Johnson, a 25-year-old graduate of Lewis & Clark College. For two months last summer, Johnson ran a bike repair shop in a refurbished trailer not far from the tram.

OHSU officials and Johnson say they joined forces to offer more services to commuters. Besides valet parking, commuters now have Johnson's repair services readily available in case they need help unexpectedly.

Johnson says he hopes to make a small profit on his end of the partnership by this month. If this test run with OHSU continues to go well (Johnson's contract with the university expires at the end of December) he'll talk to OHSU about expanding the business in some way.

Details: Go By Bike; adjacent to the Portland aerial tram at the intersection of Southwest Moody and Gibbs; 971-271-9270; gobybikepdx.com.